Tips to Promote a Growing Business with Facebook

Congratulations you launched your business's Facebook page. Now What?

Here are some tips on what you can do with Facebook (FB) to promote your business, and I don't mean just online coupons.
This blog assumes that you are familiar with managing FB page settings - Hubspot has a good how-to video on setting up a basic page.

If you remember last week I said that "Facebook Excels at Advertising and Customer Relations". This post will concentrate on customer relations and communications

Don't Just Broadcast Receive

Remember communication works best when it goes in both directions. Use FB to listen to your customers, not to just talk to them.

1. Let people comment on your pages.
   Under Setting for your page set it so that "People who like this Page can write or post content on the wall". If appropriate let them post photos, videos or links. But I would recommend that you hold off on that until you become more familiar with your fans.
   
2. Ask your fans questions.
   
   • Do they have an idea that can help you? 
   • Ask if they were running the company what would they change.
   Don't expect every answer to be useful. But you might get a good idea or inspiration for one from someone who is not in your company.
   
3. Use the Poll application on Facebook. 

Let Them Know You Are Listening

Follow what people say on your page. Set aside some time to read what people are saying on your page. It should be possible, unless you have lots of comments each day, to read every one of them. Your customers (and fans) want to know that you are paying attention to what they say. They want to make a difference.

Don't get defensive when some of the comments are negative. If someone has a legitimate complaint, address it head on and try to rectify the situation.

Custom Profile Image

Create a custom profile photo that promotes your brand or a specific product. Your profile image is not limited to the size of the swooshy haired default image. Your profile can be up to 600 pixels tall, and 200 pixels wide. Check out this 2009 post on allfacebook.com about 5 ways to alter your profile. Just keep in mind that FB only lets you clip an area 200 x 200 pixels for the thumbnail image of your profile.

Custom Applications

For the more adventuresome, try custom applications.
Visit the application page on FB, especially the Business related listing. There are several applications that can help a business:  mailing list sign ups, storefront, job posting and more.

If you are at all familiar with HTML then check out FBML (Facebook  Markup Language). It lets you add custom static code to your Facebook page. You can even make this custom code your default landing tab for visitors to your page. If you Google "FMBL Tutorial" you will see several examples of what can be done using FBML.

Final Word of Advice

When you respond to people on FB, take time and think out your answers. This is especially true if you are responding to criticism or a complaint. Open up Notepad or some other text editor and write out your response. Save it and then reread it an hour or two later before posting.

Good Luck.